Oddities
by HeadlessHuntsman
Summary: A short piece of fluff about Percy/Audrey written for two competitions...


**A/N: Hey all this was written for two challenges. The first is I Promise You That's "Of Weathers and Characteristics contest. The other is ReillyJade's "Academy Awards" competition.**

**In the first my weather was Cloudburst and my characteristic was Anxious.**

**In the second I was supposed to work in a quote from a movie. My quote was: "There's no point in being nuts if you can't have a little fun." ~John Nash, _A Beautiful Mind_ **

**Disclaimer: I own none of what you recognize including the quote. Thanks to JKR for giving us this world.**

**Oddities**

The streets were bustling, with Saturday afternoon shoppers. The few shoppers who noticed the couple, walking arm in arm, stopped and stared. If ever there was a case study for opposites attract, it would be this couple.

The man stood an inch above six feet tall. His flaming red hair was closely cropped in a conservative style, which went well with his khaki pants and his solid colored polo shirt. He was holding an umbrella under one arm as the forecast had called for a chance of rain.

The woman stood just over five feet tall. Her clothing style was, what the magazines would call, eclectic. Today she wore a black leather skirt, a white balloon sleeve blouse under an electric blue corset. She wore boots, in the same color as the corset, which raised her height to five feet four inches. Her coal black hair was shoulder length and cut to frame her face.

As the couple stopped to look in the window of a small art gallery, the low rumble of thunder could be heard. The first few heavy drops of rain sent the shoppers scurrying for the protection of the shops, to avoid the sudden cloudburst. The man quickly opened his umbrella and motioned for the young lady to join him beneath his refuge.

The woman squealed with delight and kicked off her boots. By now the rain was coming down in sheets and the narrow shop streets were beginning to flood.

"Come dance with me!" The barefoot woman squealed, twirling in the middle of the street, her arms spread and her chin raised to the pouring heavens.

The man smiled in spite of himself. He had only known this woman for three weeks. The experience of this relationship filled the man with an anxious energy. It was not a malevolent anxiousness, but rather the way one feels waiting for Christmas morning.

"I'll get wet." The man said in a matter of fact manner, from beneath his shell of protection.

"You're not so sweet you'll melt." The woman said bounding two steps, grabbing the lamppost with her left arm, spinning around the post and landing a few feet from the man.

"Look at me!" She squealed. "I'm Gene Kelly."

"Who's that?" The man asked shying away from his soaked partner.

"You don't know who Gene Kelly is?" The woman asked. "What, were you raised by wolves?"

"Something like that." The man answered dryly, not wanting to reveal his upbringing just yet.

"Looks like I am gonna have to teach you." She said. "First lesson, dancing in the rain. Well, there's supposed to be singing as well, but we will cover that later." She grabbed both of the man's arms and pulled him from under his protective refuge, forcing him to discard his umbrella in the process.

"People are staring." The man said, glancing around at the people standing in the shop doorways and windows. "They'll think we're nutters."

The woman laughed, twirling around the man, who was now just as wet.

"Let them look," she said, "there's no point in being nuts if you can't have a little fun." She leapt into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist and kissing him on the mouth.

The man was filled with a feeling he had not felt for a long time, contentment. He emitted a hearty laugh from his soul and spun the woman, splashing in the gutters in the process. It had been a long time since he laughed, too long. In his heart he had blamed himself and his laughter for the the horrible happenings of that night. Now this creature of effervescence and spontaneity standing before him had drawn laughter from his soul. Laughter without guilt.

The man looked down at the woman he had known less than a month. The first night he met her she had simply plopped down at his table, in his favorite Muggle bar. She introduced herself by declaring the man's mood was curdling the dairy products. She also said he needed to, as she put it, "Get that stick out of your arse and have a good time." The man and the woman had been inseparable since.

The man held the woman tighter. He felt his heart fighting to loosen his tongue with as much effort as his mind sought to hold it.

"I love you, Audrey." The man's heart won.

"I love you too, Percy." The woman answered without hesitation.

People in the shops and passing by did, indeed, stare and whisper about the redhead and barefoot brunette dancing in the summer rain.

For the first time in recent memory, Percy could not care less what others thought.


End file.
